Dr Tara Duncan
Lecturer
Office - Commerce 4.35
Tel 64 3 479 3486
Email tara.duncan@otago.ac.nz
Background
Tara’s academic background is in social and cultural geography. After completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Wales, Lampeter in 1993, Tara worked in the hotel industry for a year before moving to London to work as a personal assistant for a number of years. In 1997, she decided to ‘do’ a ski season and moved to the internationally recognised resort of Whistler, British Columbia, in western Canada. Three years later, after working as Supervisor in Employee Experience (HR) at Whistler Blackcomb, she returned to the UK to undertake her MSc (in Modernity Space and Place) and then her PhD in the Department of Geography at UCL.
Prior to joining the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago, Tara worked for the Royal Geographical Society with IBG in London as the Managing Editor of their three academic journals. She has also held a temporary lecturer post in the Department of Geography at Durham University and was the ITCA (International Travel Catering Association) Research Officer in the School of Business at the University of Surrey between January and October 2005.
Tara was recently elected as a member of the ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education) Board and holds the role of Special Interest Group Evaluator. She is also on the PIHMS (Pacific International Hotel Management School) Industry Advisory Board, a role she shares with her colleague, David Scott.
Research Interests
Tara’s PhD thesis looked at the working and travelling experiences of young budget travellers. Her research interests continue to focus on young budget travellers (the Gap Year, OE, ‘Big Trip’ and backpacking for instance) and current debates on mobility, temporary migration and transnationalism. She is also interested in tourism and leisure behaviours and consumption practices and continues her geographical focus with research interests in the everyday spaces and practices of tourism and leisure.
Tara recently received a University of Otago Research Grant (with her colleague, David Scott) to conduct research into the tensions between work, leisure and mobility for temporary workers in the hospitality industry. She is also conducting research (with Dr Pernille Schiellerup, University of Oxford) which explores the lack of representation of how practitioners experience the analysis of (qualitative) data, and how they go about writing that up. In her other research project, Tara has also begun to investigate the role of women in the growth of the Central Otago Wine Region and hopes to disseminate her findings to the local community as well as through academic channels.
Selected Recent Publications
Duncan, T (forthcoming) ‘Case Study’ in Higham, J. and Hinch, T. (eds) Sport and Tourism: Globalisation, mobility and authenticity, Butterworth Heinemann.
Duncan, T. (2008) ‘The Internationalisation of Tourism Labour Markets: Working and Playing in a Ski Resort’ in Hall, C. M. and Coles, T. (eds.) International Business and Tourism: Routledge, pp 181-194
Duncan, T. (2005), ‘Current Issues in the Global Hospitality Industry’, Tourism and Hospitality Research: The Surrey Quarterly Review, 5 (4), 359-366.
Alexander, R.; Duncan, T and McGregor, G (2008), Burton New Zealand Open 2008: Economic Impact Study, Dunedin, School of Business.
PhD and Masters Supervision
PhD Ali Bavik. Strategic HRM: North Cyprus and Hong Kong Hotel Industries
PhD Margie Campbell-Price. Overseas Secondary School Trips
PhD Melissa Wan Hassan. Halal Food and the New Zealand Hospitality Industry
Masters Elizabeth Latham: Tourism and Hospitality Education in the Pacific